(Wine-Searcher) - Wine's most influential writer of the past 40 years has retired. W. Blake Gray pays tribute to a legend.

I come to praise Robert Parker, not to bury him, because this is not quite an obit. The most important critic in the history of the world officially retired this week, leaving yours truly as the best-known active wine writer from the Baltimore area. (Thanks Bob, and go Orioles!)

Parker single-handedly changed the wine world. There have been theater critics who had the power to close shows overnight, but they couldn't change the style of drama presented.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, editor-in-chief of the Wine Advocate, writes that the "Parkerization of wine" is a lie; that wines were becoming riper and more fruit-forward anyway, because of improved viticulture and winemaking as well as global warming. Perrotti-Brown also writes that Parker didn't force these styles of wines on anyone; that he succeeded because people like these wines.